Zestful Zucchini

This is my first year growing zucchini. I've always heard it's one of the easiest crops to grow in this area. Well, it appears already that might be true. Our plant has started blooming. We have blooms galore. Half male and half female. The female blooms have tiny little zucchini growing right under the blooms. We had a storm a couple of nights ago which knocked off most of the male blooms but I think we'll be okay. Here are a couple of shots of the blooms as of this morning.

For those of you paying attention, you're correct. That would be powdery mildew on the leaves. Below is an up close shot so you know exactly what powdery mildew looks like. Luckily, I have the folks at Renfrows helping me out. They said I shouldn't do anything at this point because the plant is already fruiting. So, hopefully (fingers crossed!), the mildew will be pretty harmless. The gentleman told me to not water so much and it may even go away all together. Yesterday, I did some research and found several different organic methods of dealing with mildew. If need be, I'll try those. My favorite one involves a spray made of milk and water. One part milk, nine parts water. Mix and spray. It's said that the milk provides the leaves extra nutrients to combat the mildew. Hmmm, this is all very interesting. We'll see what happens.

It appears that I'm going to encounter just about every pest known to man this year in my tiny little garden. I think last year I had a bout of beginner's luck because I did not have even one problem. Oh well. Renfrows says that each year will be completely different based on weather patterns and, next year, I may have zero issues again. I can only hope. Only time will tell....